


carnations

by pinuspinea



Category: Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty: A Gothic Romance, Sleeping Beauty - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, First Dance, Flowers as Sexual Metaphors, Lust, Sexual Tension, hand kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29586759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinuspinea/pseuds/pinuspinea
Summary: A stranger arrives at the garden party. Aurora is intrigued.
Relationships: Aurora/Caradoc
Kudos: 5





	carnations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nanasalt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanasalt/gifts), [Pure_Anon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pure_Anon/gifts).



> You really thought I'd be happy to take over just one ballet fandom?
> 
> I wrote this in about 2015 and got around to translate it because I've been bullied back into my Sleepy obsession by the bad choice ballet squad. I hate you for forcing me to read my old cringe writing <3

The prim and properness of the garden party is almost suffocating after a morning spent hiding away her budding romance with Leo. Aurora dances with the party guests and smiles with them, greets people she vaguely recalls having seen before, and suffers through her uncomfortable shoes until her minders look away long enough for her to finally rip them off her feet and feel grass between her toes again.

At least her friends are enjoying it all. It is a nice party, that cannot be denied, but it really doesn't feel like a birthday party for _her_. It's more of a social function for her parents to talk to potential suitors and to gauge the current political climate.

Her uncle is appalled when he notices Aurora hitching up her skirts and tries to cover her bare feet from the quests, but after so many years of following her antics, not many eyebrows are raised. Her mother simply gives her a look that isn't even disapproving as a group of young men gathers around her, but they do not hold her attention.

No, her eyes follow the young gardener Leo, and they share a small secret smile before she politely continues the conversation all the while sending pleading glances towards her uncle.

He finally takes mercy on her. Aurora lets out a small sigh of relief as he leads her across the garden.

A new arrival to their midst causes murmuring that quickly catches Aurora's flittering attention. Before her poor nurse or her frazzled uncle can say anything against it, Aurora hastily makes her excuses and starts making her way towards the curious young man who has just arrived.

She gets ambushed by her friends, and by the time she remembers the man, her happy dancing is interrupted by him standing on her path.

Their eyes meet. He looks at her with dark and burning eyes as his hand lowers onto her arm and slides towards her wrist.

He catches her hand between his hands and brings it up to his lips, and his eyes are dark and filled with something Aurora has felt fleetingly before but never like this, not like this.

He makes breath rise in her chest higher and higher until she flees like she is soaring, her heart beat as if she was running, her mind feeling like she is trapped in his gaze. His eyes lock her there. His touch lingers. Shivers run down her spine while he slowly lowers her hand.

His eyes are dark like the deepest red of roses in bloom, but something in him makes Aurora think of carnations. He is not like a rose, carefully ravelled in a predictable pattern. No, he is like the burst of carnations, enthralling and wild.

Her uncle is there. His interruption feels like it bursts something and like it save from something she doesn't quite yet understand, but the strange guest keeps smiling and nods approvingly as her uncle pulls her away towards yet another dance.

During the dance, he sits and sips on tea, but Aurora can feel him looking at her. He knows her movements, knows the pattern of this dance, and he follows her path with ease that is nerve-wrecking.

She goes to her parents, confused and out of breath, but even that reprieve doesn't last long.

He comes to them, dismissing good manners and having eyes only for her, and he offers his hand for her.

She thinks he will kiss her again, thinks about what it made her feel like, and she accepts it.

It is more than a kiss. It is a dance. She's afraid. She's not sure how these steps work, and she doesn't know whether she should dance with him.

Her mother gives her permission. A valet kicks the gramophone so that it starts playing music for them. The other guests watch their lingering steps and touches, curious to see how this will turn out.

He lifts her as if she was made of air. They look at one another, and there is a strange new pattern.

She is more lost than before. His hands take liberties, and he smirks at her.

Aurora wonders if he'll kiss her. She wants him to.

He stares intently into her eyes as he offers her a rose so dark it is like the blackest night. Their dance continues, familiar yet again.

The skies open. She runs for cover, runs from him, runs from all these confusing feelings.

Only too late does she realise she did not take the rose from him.


End file.
